THE CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES

New Zealand Tablet, 8 January 1914, Page 26

THE CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES

THE PRESENT METROPOLITAN

•I The Cablenews-American of'Manila had in its issue of November 2 a very appreciative notice of the Metropolitan of the Philippines, the Most Rev. Dr. Harty. After dealing with his work in the United States prior to His appointment to the archdiocese of Manila, our contemporary goes on to say : * From his coming to the islands that same marvellous power, an .almost miraculous gift in his case of producing harmony, has won the undivided loyalty of priests and people, and to their devotion, with his characteristic humility he ascribes his success. Since coming to the islands the Archbishop has placed priests in 97 parishes made vacant during the revolution. This shows what a reconstruction period it has been. These priests were educated in the diocesan seminaries, and in the new college at Mandaloya, near Sta Mesa. In the Philippines there are eight suffragan bishops, all of whom have been appointed by the Holy See since the Archbishop came to the islands. , Among them there have been three Filipinosthe late Bishop Barlin of Nueva Caceres, and the present Bishops of Cebu and Calbayog, Monsignori Gorordo and Singson. Two venerated American Bishops recognised as of remarkable gifts have died during their incumbency: Bishop Rooker of Iloilo, and Bishop Hendrick of Cebu. The bishoprics extend over some two thousand square miles and are all under one head, the Archbishop of Manila. At a rough estimate there are about two thousand parishes, and the number of priests reaches fourteen hundred. In the seminaries there are some eleven hundred young men candidates for the ministry. There is need for workers, and it would be an inspiring field for missionary zeal at home. Realising the need, the Archbishop has brought to,the Philippines by his influence missionaries who have assisted in the building up of the Church by their efficiency and enthusiasm. There have been many notable examples among the three hundred or more who have come from Germany, Belgium, Holland, Australia, and Ireland. One of these, Very Rev. Father Lynch, of the Redemptorist Order, who have their parish on the island of Mactan and in Cebu, has conducted many missions, or as Protestants would say, revival meetings in and about Manila, and his impassioned appeals to a higher life have won many to the cause he serves. Father Finegan’s work in Bilibid will never be forgotten. Father Corn el io do Bruer, who was a professor in the University of Louvain, Belgium, has now a parish in Pasig. He is greatly beloved and does not regret the change. Another is Father Le Fabre, whose father was a famous chemist in Paris, the instructor of the late Paul Freer. These men have elected to come to this far-away land, most of them without fixed salary, and many of them are living on funds supplied by their respective families. •' Not a few notable women also have left other work of importance, to sacrifice themselves to the cause of Christ here. Among the hundreds one might mention who have buried themselves in remote places, or given life to tne sick and needy, is Dame Louise, who founded the Order of the Belgian Canonesses in her own land. She then passed to India, and, her large heart still not content, sighed ‘ for other worlds to conquer and came even to us, founding her school in Tondo for the lace makers. Mother Angela, who founded St. Scholastica, of noble German family, left her country, drawn by the same magnet of self-sacri-fice, and has now planned for a college which is to cost 150,000 pesos. , . ' ' ‘' Mother Helen, of the Assumption College, daughter of the late leading Irish politician ,in .Parliament, Joseph Biggar, M.P., has been’ for ten years at the head of the principal young ladies’ college, in Manila. Sister Modesta, at the head of Looban, a fine type from the land of Sta. Teresa, is loved by all for her some thirty years of service or more in islands, while Mother Melanie, the head of St. Paul’s Hospital, is, as - she was called the - other- day by- a- prominent - Filipino statesman, after, vainly t trying to find :, another — - A , y.' *Vv wP. f.. .-r.j >

adjective for her, just a ‘ great woman.’ She is one of two Sisters, both at the head of.hospitals in Manila, coming from Saigon Military Hospital, where they had the strictest modern training, to take charge of a work here which has reached vast proportions. Institutions founded during the archiepiscopate of Dr. Harty have been as follows among many others throughout the islands, which space is lacking to enumerate:—St. Paul’s Hospital, within the oldi walled city, founded in the first years of the American occupation to supply the lack of such institutions in those days, is now so outgrowing its quarters that a modern building is soon to be erected outside the city in a healthier position. This large private hospital has taken rich and poor, those of any race, or nation, or faith. The only question has been: ‘Are you sick?’ The Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres are in charge. The Hospicio of San Jose, the largest private institution for charity in the islands, where 800 take four meals per day, has been entirely renovated. At a private insane asylum at Cavite, numbers ot cases are being cured in the open air and more congenial atmosphere than before in the city. An Industrial School at Lolomboy, ‘ for wayward boys, is in its fourth year, and is no longer an experiment. Here 260 boys, ranging from Bto 18, are learning trades, and when they finish their term they are the proteges of the Archbishop, who strives and has succeeded in finding for them employment in which they can earn an honest living. An orphanage in Tondo has also been founded, possessing this peculiar, trait, that the children are learning to be self-supporting while in the institution by making lace and embroidery. Of the schools, those of most importance founded by the Archbishop are the Seminary at Mandaloya, Do La Salle College for the boys of the well-to-do, and the restored Assumption for young girls to fit them for their social sphere; St. Scholastica, whose teachers have their degrees from the universities of Germany, and a new college on Calle Alix, that of the Order of the Holy Ghost, whose Sisters are from Style, Germany. These Sisters have a college as well in the mountains of Tayum, where 400 poor children of the district are received as day pupils and 400 as boarders. In his work of education the Archbishop has introduced the German methods of pedagogy, and has earnestly urged the use of English in all the schools, so as to have a common universal world language in the islands. Since the Archbishop’s arrival in Manila, there have been built in the city several churches, notably St. Vincent de Paul on Calle Marcelino, the Capuchins*! Intramuros, and the restored San Miguel church, the gift of Dona Carmen Ayala y Roxas, with the new concrete church of Paco.

A new scheme to provide farm' labor for the country districts of New Zealand has been initiated by. the Immigration Department. It is similar in some respects to the Sedgwick scheme, but the Department is now working direct. By the Ayrshire, due at Auckland from Home ports on January 19, there will arrive 51 boys for farm work in New Zealand (says the Otago Daily Times). Their passage money (£lO each) has been paid by farmers in the Dominion, who have expressed the desire to take them, andnhe boys will be indentured to their new employers for three years. The Department has its officers at Home choosing the best kind of boys for the scheme, and it is hoped that by this means a new generation ’of farm labor will be started in the Dominion. A second batch of 50 boys will arrive by the steamer Suffolk at Auckland on February 7. Nearly all of these have been bespoken, and it is certain that they will all be placed before they arrive. Further batches of immigrants are due in the Dominion early in the year. The steamer Rotorua has 18 domestics, 29 farm laborers, and 63 relatives, a total of 110. The Ayrshire, due at " Auckland on January 19, is bringing 7 domestics, 6 farm laborers, and 41 relatives. , •